Food Blog Friday: Spicy Tomato Jam from Divina Cucina

There are tons of tomato jam recipes floating around right now, but the first time I remember reading about it was last summer at Over a Tuscan Stove. Although Judy cooks, teaches, and blogs from Tuscany, the recipe for tomato jam came from a brochure that a friend mailed her from Sicily. Like all of my favorite Sicilian recipes, the jam recipe is very simple – just tomatoes, sugar, lemon juice, and a bit of fresh basil. I bookmarked it back then, but didn’t get around to trying it until recently.

Back to the Tomato Jam. I didn’t follow the exact recipe, but my version is pretty close to the original. I left out the basil and added crushed red pepper instead. The chili doesn’t add much flavor, just a hint of spice that I thought would be fun. Please head to Over a Tuscan Stove for the original recipe. You can see my version at the bottom of this post.

In a medium pot, stir together tomatoes, sugar, 1/4 cup lemon juice and the crushed red pepper flakes. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Let simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally (you’ll need to stir more often as jam thickens), until mixture is thick and jammy, about an hour and 15 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in remaining 2 tablespoons of lemon juice. Pour into a clean container, let cool, then refrigerate until ready to use. Yield: a little over 1 pint. Can be kept refrigerated for about two weeks.

My grandmother Denny used to make something we called "Chili sauce" which was kind of a less thickened version of this. Everyone in my family loved to eat it on toast. I bet this is even better, sounds great!

Fantastic is just one of the many words that come to mind. I cooked this up a couple of days ago changing just a few things. I added lots of fresh basil and changed out the pepper flakes for cayenne pepper. It turned out wonderful however, I have one question. Mine didn't thicken up like jam, it is a littl runny. Did I not cook it long enough? What did I do wrong?